Detective and mystery stories; Hoodlums -- Fiction; London (England) -- Social life and customs -- Fiction; Murder -- Fiction
“My God!” groaned the physician, and momentarily dropped his face into
his hands.
But almost immediately he recovered himself and with his mouth drawn
into a grim straight line, looked again at M. Max, who continued:
“I do not think that this abduction was planned by the group; I think it
was an accident and that they were forced, in self-protection, to detain
your daughter, who unwisely--morbleu! how unwisely!--forced herself into
their secrets. To arrest Gianapolis (even if that were possible) would
be to close their doors to us permanently; and as we do not even know
the situation of those doors, that would be to ruin everything. Whether
Miss Cumberly is confined in the establishment of Ho-Pin or somewhere
else, I cannot say; whether she is a captive of Gianapolis or of
Mr. King, I do not know. But I know that the usual conduct of the
establishment is not being interrupted at present; for only half-an-hour
ago I telephoned to Mr. Gianapolis!”
“At Globe Road?” snapped Dunbar, with a flash of the tawny eyes.
“At Globe Road--yes (oh! they would not detain her there!). Mr.
Gianapolis was present to speak to me. He met me very agreeably in the
matter of occupying my old room in the delightful Chinese hotel of Mr.
Ho-Pin. Therefore”--he swept his left hand around forensically, as if to
include the whole of the company--“to-morrow night at eleven o'clock I
shall be meeting Mr. Gianapolis at Piccadilly Circus, and later we shall
join the limousine and be driven to the establishment of Ho-Pin.” He
turned to Inspector Dunbar. “Your arrangements for watching all the
approaches to the suspected area are no doubt complete?”
“Not a stray cat,” said Dunbar with emphasis, “can approach Limehouse
Causeway or Pennyfields, or any of the environs of the place, to-morrow
night after ten o'clock, without the fact being reported to me! You
will know at the moment that you step from the limousine that a cyclist
scout, carefully concealed, is close at your heels with a whole troup to
follow; and if, as you suspect, the den adjoins the river bank, a police
cutter will be lying at the nearest available point.”
“Eh bien!” said M. Max; then, turning to Denise Ryland and Dr. Cumberly,
and shrugging his shoulders: “you see, frightful as your suspense must
be, to make any foolish arrests to-night, to move in this matter at all
to-night--would be a case of more haste and less speed”...
“But,” groaned Cumberly, “is Helen to lie in that foul, unspeakable den
until the small hours of to-morrow morning? Good God! they may”...
“There is one little point,” interrupted M. Max with upraised hand,
“which makes it impossible that we should move to-night--quite apart
from the advisability of such a movement. We do not know exactly where
this place is situated. What can we do?”
He shrugged his shoulders, and, with raised eyebrows, stared at Dr.
Cumberly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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